Interacting Identities: Sophie Cottin’s Malvina (1800) Charlotte Medland Modern Languages, University of Southampton Women of all social classes were extremely proactive in the publishers’ choices to those books that guaranteed profit. French Revolution (1789-1799). They participated in the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, and in the October • The resulting fall in the amount of original literature Days of the same year. Through historical accounts and published by female novelists during the Revolution, official records we know much about how women asserted especially 1794-1800,7 defines those who were published their identity, and how they wished their collective identity to – including Cottin – as important. develop. Women such as the writer Olympe de Gouges (1748- • Severe censorship in France at this time further limited the 1793) were very vocal in the first few years of the Revolution, freedoms of political and social expression, particularly calling for equal rights regardless of gender.1 Women’s initial for women. optimism and hope for equality were, however, replaced by • Thus, women writers had to make use of market forces anger and disappointment when they were banned from (harnessing the social and literary conventions of the political involvement by the Jacobin government in October time) and evade censorship if they chose to challenge 1793. Increasingly, between this exclusion and the rise to these conventions. power of Napoleon as Emperor in 1801, ‘political’ women, including Olympe de Gouges and Manon Roland (1754- Cottin, as a young widow on the edge of the French nobility, 1793)2 were highlighted as being a major cause of the growing would have had to take all of the above into account, not anarchy in public life.3Women were often categorised as only from a commercial perspective, but also in order to either ruthless, manipulative, often politically motivated remain socially secure. Malvina, published in 1800, but seductresses, or ladies of leisure, willingly ignorant of the produced between 1798 and 1799, offers a window on these unhappiness and destitution in others’ lives.4 challenges, and further investigation into the structure of this novel encourages the thesis that women writers during Some critical attention has been paid to literary political the revolutionary decade were using the ‘conventional’ novel women such as de Gouges, Roland, and the famously political for often subversive social and political commentary. The aristocrat Germaine de Staël (1766-1817). Though these exploration of this concept is the basis of this article. women defied the afore-mentioned categories in aligning themselves with the new patriotism, thus rejecting the Eighteenth-century literary traditions Ancien Régime woman in all her forms, they still represent Little had transformed women’s novel writing since Mme de a ‘public elite’, as they witnessed many key revolutionary Lafayette’s influential La Princesse de Clèves (1678). This events in person. Much less written information is available novel of sensibility, “viewed through the prism of moral on those women who were not openly involved in public life, and literary conventions of the period – and all literary but who produced written works between the executions conventions must of necessity be the faithful reflection of of Queen Marie-Antoinette and Olympe de Gouges in the prevailing moral conventions”8 was an aspiration for women autumn of 1793, and the creation of the Code Napoléon in writers throughout the eighteenth century. Although politics 1804.5 Writing by women in this period is therefore vital to and society were changing, morality (or at least the feminine our understanding of the effect that post-1793 events had on moral sphere) was not. The morally-instructive characters the social and legal status of French women. One such figure, of the callous libertine and vulnerable ingénue, adopted who has as yet attracted little critical attention, is Sophie early in the tradition of novel writing, were thus employed Cottin (1770-1807).6 Her case epitomises the challenges that throughout the eighteenth century.9 The hero and heroine faced a woman writer of this era: in Malvina initially appear very much to fit this mould. It Rationing as a result of revolutionary wars, and a lack of is in this tradition of libertinism that we are meant to view disposable income for the majority, would have narrowed Sir Edmond (the hero) when we first meet him. When we are introduced to Malvina, she is lonely and grieving and dresses 1. For information on de Gouges, see Candice E. Proctor, Women, Equality, to hide her sexuality, having been widowed at twenty-one. and the French Revolution (New York: Greenwood, 1990). 2. For information on Manon Roland, see Lucy Moore, Liberty: the Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France (London: Harper Perennial, This introduction is deceptive, however. As this paper shall 2007). argue, Cottin’s two characters can also be viewed as going 3. For the reaction of the French government post-1793 to women’s public involvement, see Proctor, Women, Equality, and the French Revolution, against the literary formulae of the era, as Cottin uses 169-171. her writing to problematise their social categorisation. In 4. For the revolutionary reaction against the political mobilisation of women, see Proctor, Chapter 8, 131-153. And Chapter 10, 169-188. subverting expectations, she opens up other ‘traditions,’ be 5. Carla Hesse, The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became they social or political, to redefinition. To aid in explaining Modern (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2001) gives a breakdown of the genres being published by women during the French Revolution, but these redefinitions two specific passages shall be analysed. does not analyse any genre in particular. Dominique Godineau focuses on the working-class ‘citoyenne’ in The women of Paris and their French Revolution 7. See Hesse, chapter two for more information. (Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 1998), and claims that, “after 8. Eva Jacobs et.al (eds.) Woman and Society in eighteenth-century France: the failure of the Prairial insurrection, there was no longer a mass women’s essays in honour of John Stephenson Spink (London: Athlone Press, 1979), movement.” (364), as it no longer served a political purpose. It is this 209. assumed apathy that I wish to deny through literary analysis. 9. This is most famously depicted through Choderlos de Laclos’ novel Les 6. With the exception of Michael J. Call, Infertility and the Novels of Sophie Liaisons Dangereuses (Paris: Durand Neveu, 1782), also highlighting the Cottin (London: Associated University Presses, 2002). adoption of the tradition among male novelists. 27 Though short, they epitomise the idea of redefining identity required through marriage). Cottin’s language choice in through interaction and raise some problematic questions this passage is telling of contemporary eighteenth-century about this redefinition. These passages describe the first attitudes to women, such as their lack of official identity meeting of Malvina and Sir Edmond. Malvina meets Sir (other than the one given to them by a patriarchal society). Edmond after others have given her strong opinions on his In this instance, the identity is given to her through marriage, character; her reaction to him unnerves and excites her at though previously she would have been the property of her the same time. Sir Edmond is aware that Malvina will have father. This legal status for women did not change with the been fed (possibly false) information about him, but is Revolution and was cemented in the Code Napoléon.19 intrigued to meet the mysterious woman who never attends their host’s dinner table. The interest in this passage lies Cottin follows this evocation of marriage with a quasi- not only in the sentimental importance of this moment in feminine description of Sir Edmond as possessing the the plot, but also in the subtext implicated in this chapter’s “charme de la sensibilité.”20 This creates some confusion subtitle, “Une Entrevue”: a meeting. A meeting of what, over his identity. Is Sir Edmond in touch with his emotions, however? Of minds? Of souls? Of polar opposites? To begin like Rousseau’s eponymous hero in Émile (1762)?21 Or was uncovering this subtext, an analysis of literary traditions is this sensitivity considered a mostly feminine trait during crucial. These conventions of eighteenth-century writing are the Revolution, when the active ‘citoyen’22 was defined as no less important, as they use the traditional to implement placing patriotic duty before personal feeling? This confusion the political. of gender traits, and the question of whether they remain positive when attributed to the opposite sex, serves as a Malvina meets her ‘hero’ reminder that though gender identities were being redefined throughout the revolutionary decade, these redefinitions 1 C’était une de ces physionomies où tout le feu de could not entirely erase previous social behaviours. It is, l’esprit s’unit au charme de therefore, not only Malvina who is struggling to fit into a new 2 la sensibilité et qu’il ne faut pas regarder deux societal mould, but also Sir Edmond. fois quand on veut conserver sa 3 tranquillité. – L’innocente Malvina ignorait ce The initial “charme”23 that strikes Malvina is then tempered danger et ce qui aurait dû by the revelation “qu’il ne faut pas regarder deux fois”:24 4 l’engager à fuir fut précisément ce qui la fit rester.” 10 This links Edmond with Classical mythology, evoking the image of the Greek Gorgon Medusa, with whom the danger 1 It was one of those faces where all the fire of the of looking was associated. Edmond appears to be set up spirit unites with the charms of here as a Greek figure, capable of both extreme benevolence 2 sensibility, and that one should not look at and dangerous acts, to be both idolised and feared.25 This twice, if one wishes to keep their initial note of caution is further emphasised by the use of 3 peace of mind.